Harley Benton CST-24T Ocean Flame Reviews

Solid Instrument

Instrument arrived well packed. Pulled out of box, tuned it, and proceeded to played for hours. Fret edges were clean, intonation was spot on, action was perfect. No buzzing. I have purchased "budget" instruments before and typically you get what you pay for in this price range. This is far and away a better quality instrument and so much more for the price. Finish had a few imperfections but the blue flamed top was still nice to look at. Would not hesitate to purchase another Harley Benton.

Overall well finished, good guitar

I was very excited to get this guitar.

I'm mainly a bass player but play guitar on the side for recording and home use.

This is the first time i ordered a guitar without playing it before.

My expectations were kinda shaped by the youtube research i did before (which is overall very positive).

Mine took about a week to get delivered in Holland.

Pros:

It was absolutely playable right out of the box.

Although action was set quite high, it was in tune.

Paintjob is flawless, frets are very nicely finished and the fretboard looks realy nice too... no glue traces, spots, cracks or anything like that.

Small detail: mine is 'made in China' as opposed to 'Vietnam' like most recent reviews

Tuners feel solid. No problem tuning and the guitar stays in tune, even after bending strings.

The Roswell pickups sound great and with the split coil option u get an extra set of different tones... clearly audible without loadz of distortion.

The versatility was actually my main reason i chose this guitar.

Electronics work as they should and the controls feel solid as well.

Cons:

A bit of a downer was the actual flame on the top. On my CST it is kinda subtle, hardly visble when not in direct daylight.

Definitely not as eye-catching like i've seen in most videos and pictures.

Also, the tremolo was setup very tight. It really needs to be pushed down hard which makes it hard to make a fluid bend. I guess this can be fixed by adjusting the trem.

Furthermore, after bending with the tremolo, the guitar tends to get out of tune a bit. This is probably due to the nut.

Apart from the downsides as mentioned above it's a great guitar for the price.

So far it's definetely on par with the VM Squier and Ibanez guitars and basses i've played

It sounds great, and It absolutely looks and feels way more expensive then it is.

So far it is so fun to play, i have given way to little love to my basses these past days.

All the Quality os a PRS SE for a Fraction of the cost!

Great guitar! Never going to use the tremolo, but the wilkinson tremelo is superior to the standard bridge version, and I just locked it down. I did add locking tuners, as do on most of my guitars but that was by choice, and the tuners ion it worked good. Fits and finish are stellar, and the setup was almost complete. just some minor things like a turn on the truss rod, and it was ready to play. This guitar feels good plays good and had great tone.

How is this possible!

I had been considering a PRS SE for a while until I found harley benton. I now have 4 harley bentons, but this is by far the best of the bunch.

What really surprised me is that the frets came polished and everything was perfectly set up... Even my ibanez which cost more than double the price came with scratchy frets and in need of a full setup.

Harley benton can be a lucky dip in terms of quality and so far 2/4 guitars I have received have been perfect... however I think once you get into the "higher end" ones like this one, the quality control is more strict. The 2 more expensive ones I have received were the ones that were bang on.

I'm glad I discovered Harley Benton, because this guitar is 95% of the PRS SE I tried but at a fraction of the cost.

Overall a stunning guitar.

Tuning Issues

First impressions, it is beautiful and the finish is flawless.

Neck is poker-straight with the most comfortable neck-joint/cutaway I've ever played.

I lowered the action, tweaked the intonation and changed the strings to my preferences.

Pickups sound great, even for metal, and they clean up well rolling off the volume knob.

The bad: The cheap plastic nut needs work. I can see that the strings are binding in the slots. Had to tune after every song at band practice, even without using the trem.

In 30 years, I've only played guitars with locking nuts, so I'm used to the thing staying in tune no matter what.

The push-pull pickup splitter knob hardly makes a change. This was my main reason for getting this guitar

as I'm in a cover band doing all styles of rock. I suspect it's the low-budget pickups...

I could fix all the problems, but I just don't want to sink any more money into this thing.

Worth its price

Good quality for the price and nice sound.

Best guitar for the Money

I am a fairly well-seasoned guitar, and also a smart shopper. This is my favorite guitar I've ever owned. The quality out of the box was staggering regardless of the price, but the affordable price was certainly the cherry on top. I did adjust the truss rod and saddles a bit (you always have to after shipping a guitar) and everything was smooth. I also did change the pickups. The ones it came with were fine, but just not my style. I will reiterate: I have owned over 40 guitars over my life and this is my all time favorite. The frest ends are perfect, the guitar is beautiful, the neck shape is a perfect compromise between speed and comfort. Buy this guitar.

Bad luck

I must have the worst luck with Harley Benton guitars. A few weeks ago I received and immediately returned a TE90FLT ..... totally unplayable and looked as if it had been lying about the shop for a while, volume and tone controls didn't work and when they did the whole pot including the innards turned round and round. Anyway, not to be put off I put it down as a one off but lost faith in the model hence I got a CST 24 instead....... Almost unplayable! I've had to buy a new nut which I wil have to replace as it's far too high and the action is awful. I decided to change the strings and the ball ends wouldn't come out of the bridge for three of the strings until I removed the saddles and poked them through with a long thin screwdriver. I have watched sooooo many reviews on you tube with more than positive reviews so I guess I just have bad luck. In November I got a HB fretless J bass which is absolutely fantastic and I'm waiting for a BZ4000NT which wont be in stock for 6-7 weeks and I'm really hopeing it's the same quality as the fretless J bass. Believe it or not I'm thinking about buying another HB guitar because it can't be strike three......... Can it?

Beautiful guitar!!

First of all, the color is beautiful. This guitar is perfect. Right out of the box, all I had to do was lower the action and tune it. No fret buzz at all. I am very happy with this purchase. I will definitely buy another Harley Benton.

All reviews were good but it has exceeded my expectations

Nothing prepares you for actally touching and looking at it physically.

Lovely

I opened the box and was genuinely pleased with what was in it, the finish is up to epiphone standards( I also own an epiphone) and playability out of the box is very good just a quick retune( not a tweak of the machines) good intonation so it was plugged in and given a thrashing within minutes, would I recommend buying one,oh yes without hesitation, for the price point you won't buy better.

Cant be beaten for the money

I think this probably gives PRS nightmares .. or it should. Of course there is nothing like owning the real thing and there are the odd bits that wont stand up to a "real" one or even the SE's but for the money its really not bad at all. an hour or so of set up and it plays well looks fantastic (as long as you are not too critical) and sounds pretty good.

I wouldnt call it a poor mans PRS its just a good guitar

Great guitar for the price, but there was some work needed to be done for it to play decently at lower action.

There was a few dead spots and buzzing so i had to level, crown and polish the frets.

Tuners had jumps and they didn't hold tuning very well (I swapped them for locking ones).

But most problematic was nut, it was poorly slotted, it gripped strings and preventing them from sliding while bending or using tremolo (I had to reshape and properly slot it)

But on the other hand, this guitar is a great foundation for upgrades: solid construction, beautiful aesthetics, stable & comfortable neck, good tremolo, good sounding pickups (mid-output, balanced, organic)...

Amaying for the money!

This guitar is absolutely amazing for the money. Even on a basic amp, it sounds very warm and has a nice tone. It is stunningly beautiful (I have the blue one). It feels great and plays great. The only problem I have is some cosmetic problems on the fretboard and on the finish, but this is nothing serious and really details. As some people wrote, the fretboard is a bit dry, but you can easily put some lemon oil on it. Overall, if you're an intermediate player and do not want to spend a lot of money, but want a quality guitar, this one is for you!

Exellent value and sound

Great looking & sounding guitar.

I am but a simple bedroom (basement, actually) player, having great fun with this guitar.

The value for money is immense - some cosmetic imperfections, but the actual quality in fretwork (which matters a lot), nut and tremolo is downright surprising. Stays in tune with tremolo use - this is not a given - and the coil split is handy.

Somewhat high weight and my copy seems to have a little extra in the bottom end which makes it slide to the right a bit when sitting. I'm guessing this will be solved by using a strap.

Overall, highly recommended!

a nice prs copy

its a nice well built guitar plays good and sounds good .

Best Value Guitar Out There

I've been playing guitar for over ten years now, and have owned everything from American Standard Strat on down to the worst budget guitar you can imagine. I bought this just to see what all the youtube buzz was about

Pros

The color looks great. The pickups are decent. Tuners actually work (not always a given at this price). Has a great feeling neck, but that is a personal opinion. Absolutely amazed they can pull it off at this price.

Cons

The setup was poor, nut not cut properly, a couple of high frets causing some buzz, action was high. However, i've seen these same problems in guitars at double this price point. In fact, I don't mind paying 50 bucks more to get a good setup from my tech, and everyone should expect that with a budget guitar.

The roswell pickups do not sound very different from each other. I'm prolly gonna throw some Duncans I have lying around in there so this doesn't bother me, but it may be a problem for some people.

Lastly, I wouldn't try take this to a gig with the stock output jack. Spend the five bucks for a switchcraft.

Overall, I wish "beginner" guitars were this good when I started playing.

What a looker - Very Impressive

I was looking for a guitar to start learning, and that would last for the future. As a mature beginner, I was looking for something with not only looks, but some substance and value behind it. I trawled many written and video reviews for the Harley Benton range, and finally plumped for the CST-24T in Ocean Flame. A big thanks to Cory Mura and Nick from the States for the fantastic information and breadth of reviews for this brand. It really helped with making my choice.

The guitar and additional items I had ordered arrived in good time and well packaged. On opening, I was blown away with the quality look and feel of this guitar. I carried out a check on the cosmetics and set-up of the guitar (Thanks again to Cory's video) and it was flawless, barring a tiny cosmetic blemish tucked away in a corner. Neck relief, action height, intonation all set-up well.

As a beginner, it is difficult/impossible for me to comment on the Electronics and sound quality, as I have nothing to compare it to, but to me it sounds a plays great.

I am very happy with this purchase, and for the price it just oozes quality.

Okay lets start with Pros :

- mahogany body,

- beautiful finish,

- pickups sound good, they really bite when playing metal but they do have a small bump in bass around 100-150hz. They are versatile enough for clean stuff too,

- neck is straight, frets are even, dots look great, intonation was on spot

- bridge holds the tuning well, even when using tremolo arm it was in tune for quite some time

- tuning pegs are okay but locking tuners are a must when using tremolo bridge

- split coil works like a charm

Cons

- roseacer is really dry and ugly looking to me (no wood grain at all) needs some love like lemon oil and polishing

- small chunk of wood missing on 13th fret

- sharp fret ends

- small fret buzz

- guitar is too heavy, l know it's a PRS copy but they could make 'em slimmer and lighter

- tuners are okay, but tremolo will detune guitar after some heavy use

- small crack on headstock too (transportation probably)

Can't be beat for the price.

For modern metal and rock tones this thing is fantastic, for anything else I've not really tried it.

I'll start with the pros - Fretwork is good, fret ends are a little rough but all are well rounded and no dead spots anywhere on the neck.

Pickups - if I never knew they were wilkinson I'd say they sounded like a SD JB/Jazz combo.

Bridge - comfortable, intonated perfectly out of the box.

Tuners - I'd probably pay ~£100 for these alone, far superior to quite a few branded tuners I have on other much higher spec'd/priced guitars.

Now the negatives.

Finish - a few spots of uneven staining, rough binding in spots and a few marks on the fretboard.

All in all would pay 2x the price for this guitar if the cosmetic issues were dealt with.